The present invention is directed to an enossal implant, which is also known as an endosteal or endosseous implant. The enossal single-tooth implant of the present invention is for a tight-fitting denture and substantially includes a cylindrical basic body insertable in a bore made in the jawbone, which body has a blind bore opening at a coronal end with a coronal front edge, a spacing sleeve engageable on the coronal front edge of the basic body, means for holding the spacing sleeve on the basic body and in a rotation-preventing manner, an implant post with a fixing head for the denture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,840, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference thereto and which claims priority from German Application 40 28 855, discloses an enossal single-tooth implant. The implant of this patent has an outer circumference of a spacing sleeve which forms an outer face or surface of an implant in a subgingival contact with the surrounding tissue and between the basic body and a spacing sleeve there is necessarily a joint area. To hold the spacing sleeve on the basic body, a fixing head is provided. The spacing sleeve is connected to the basic body in a rotation-prevented manner and has means for forming a rotation-preventing connection to the denture and, therefore, forms necessarily additional joint areas on the outer circumference of the implant. The basic body, spacing sleeve and fixing head are prefabricated parts which only can be adapted to a limited extent to the anatomical features of a specific patient. The basic body, the spacing sleeve, the implant post and the fixing head, preferably, are made from a body tissue-friendly titanium alloy.
The known single-tooth implant has proven fundamentally satisfactory, but it has proven desirable to be able to further improve the adaptation of the implant to specific or special characteristics of the body. It is also desirable to substantially reduce the subgingival joint areas on the outer circumference or surface of the implant.